Opening doors to communities of practice: Programmatic interventions for inclusion in the computing sciences

Countries around the world are recognizing the need to nurture a diverse and strong science and technology (S&T) workforce as critical to development efforts. However, entry and advancement in S&T fields have not been an equal opportunity enterprise. Referring especially to the underrepresentation of women and minorities, broadly defined, a lack of diversity in S&T fields has resulted from social and institutional barriers to educational attainment and to occupational opportunity and access. However, while this lack of diversity is noted generally across S&T fields, it is relatively more pronounced in some arenas, such as the computing sciences. The relative advantage and disadvantage of some groups in S&T educational and occupational attainment are grounded in socio-historical, political, cultural, and economic processes. These processes are deeply institutionalized and, to affect them, interventions are needed that incorporate both long and short term and top-down and bottom-up perspectives. To that end, and informed by relevant theoretical and empirical research, we devise a baseline intervention model that can be applied to developing programs at varying levels of complexity and directed at broader participation in computing and in S&T more generally. We then present a brief case study of an application of the model to illustrate and examine its feasibility in practical terms. We end with general remarks and a discussion of implications for future research and effecting sustained change.